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The  Economic 
Functions 
of  Vice 


1 


BY 


JOHN  Mcelroy. 


J 


dy: 


r 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 


PRESENTED  BY 

PROF.  CHARLES  A.  KOFOID  AND 

MRS.  PRUDENCE  W.  KOFOID 


^ 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

Microsoft  Corporation 


i 
http://www.archive.org/details/economicfunctionOOmcelrich         j 


THE  ECONOMIC 
FUNCTIONS  OF  VICE 


BY 


JOHN  Mcelroy. 


WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 
Published  by  The  Nahonal  Tribune. 


Copyright,  1908 

BY 

JOHN  McELROY 


"Arc  God  and  Nature  then  at  strife. 
That  Nature  lends  such  evil  dreams? 
So  careful  of  the  type  she  seems. 

So  careless  of  the  single  life.** 

Hr  V  V  V  V 

**And  the  individual  withers,  and  the  world  is 
more  and  more.** 

— Tennyson. 


M363657 


THE  ECONOMIC 
FUNCTIONS  OF  VICE 


OR  some  inscrutable 
reason  which  she  has 
as  yet  given  no  hint 
of  revealing,  Nature  is 
wondrously  wasteful 
in  the  matter  of  generation.  She  creates  a 
thousand  where  she  intends  to  make  use 
of  one. 

Imbued  with  the  maternal  instinct, 
the  female  cod  casts  millions  of  eggs 
upon  the  waters,  expecting  them  to  re- 
turn after  many  days  as  troops  of  in- 


Page  7 


teresting  offspring.  Instead,  half  the 
embryotic  gadi  are  almost  immediately 
devoured  by  spawn-eaters,  hundreds  of 
thousands  perish  in  incubation,  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  more  succumb  to 
the  perils  attending  ichthyic  infancy, 
leaving  but  a  few  score  to  attain  to 
adult  usefulness  and  pass  an  honored 
old  age  with  the  fragrance  of  a  well- 
spent  life  in  the  country  grocery. 

The  oak  showers  down  10,000  acorns, 
each  capable  of  producing  a  tree. 
Three-fourths  of  them  are  straightway 
diverted  from  their  arboreal  intent 
through  conversion  into  food  by  the 
provident  squirrel  and  improvident  hog. 
Great   numbers   rot   uselessly   upon    the 


Page  8 


ground,  and  the  few  hundred  that  fi- 
nally succeed  in  germinating  grow  up 
into  dense  thickets,  where  at  last  the 
strongest  smothers  out  all  the  rest  like 
an  oaken  Othello  in  a  harem  of  quer- 
cine   Desdemonas. 


HIS  is  the  law  of  all  life,  animal 
as  well  as  vegetable.  From  the 
humble  hyssop  on  the  wall  to  the  towering 
cedar  of  Lebanon,  from  the  meek  and 
lowly  amoeba — ^which  has  no  more 
character  or  individuality  than  any  other 
pin-point   of   jelly — to   the   lordly   tyrant 

Page  9 


man,  the  rule  is  inevitable  and  invari- 
able. 

Life  is  sown  broadcast  only  to  be 
followed  almost  immediately  by  a  de- 
struction nearly  as  swift.  Nature  cre- 
ates by  the  million  apparently  that  she 
may  destroy  by  the  myriads.  She  gives 
life  one  instant  only  that  she  may 
snatch  it  away  the  next.  The  main 
difference  is  that  the  higher  we  ascend 
the  less  lavish  is  the  creation  and  the 
less   sweeping    the    destruction. 

Thus,  while  probably  but  one  fish 
out  of  a  thousand  reaches  maturity,  of 
1,000  children  born  604  attain  adult 
age;  that  is.  Nature  flings  aside  999 
out   of   every    1,000   fish   as   useless   for 


Page  10 


her    purposes,    and    two    out    of    every 
five   human   beings. 


n^  I  ANY  see  in  this  relentless  weed- 
^^Q  ing  out  and  destruction  of  her 
inferior  products  a  remarkable  illustra- 
tion of  the  wisdom  of  Nature's  meth- 
ods. What  would  they  think  of  a 
workman  so  bungling  that  two-fifths  of 
the  products  of  his  handicraft  were 
only  fit  for  destruction? 

The  "struggle  for  existence"  is  a 
murderous  scramble  to  get  rid  of  this 
vast  surplusage.  The  "survival  of  the 
fittest"  is  the  success  of  the  minority  in 

Page  I! 


demonstrating  that  the  majority  are 
superfluous.  It  is  the  Kilkenny-cat  epi- 
sode multiplied  by  infinity.  It  will  be 
remembered  that  the  whole  trouble 
arose  from  the  common  belief  that  two 
cats  were  a  surplus  of  one  for  the 
Kilkenny   environment. 

Darwin's  theory  recognizes  in  this 
super-fecundity  of  nature  a  most  potent 
adjunct  for  improvement.  He  says,  in 
fact,  that  the  impossibility  of  providing 
subsistence  for  more  than  a  fraction  of 
the  multitudinous  creation  causes  a 
mortal  struggle  in  which  the  weaker 
and  inferior  are  exterminated  and  only 
the  stronger  and  superior  survive.  TTiese 
in   turn,   have   offspring   like   the   leaves 

Page  12 


of  the  forest,  which  in  like  turn  are 
winnowed  out  by  alien  enemies  and 
reciprocal  extermination,  and  thus  the 
process  goes  on  with  the  sanguinary 
regularity  of  the  King  of  Dahomey's 
administration  of  the  internal  economy 
of  his  realm.  The  benignity  of  this 
method  of  arranging  the  order  of  things 
is  not  so  apparent  as  a  member  of  the 
Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty 
to  Animals  might  desire. 


rfi  [UT  our  opinion  of  this  law  is 
RbaSi  not  cared  for.  It  is  academic 
and  superfluous.    The  main  importance 


Page  13 


attaches  to  the  recognition  of  the  fact 
that  it  is  a  law. 

Its  application  to  society  is  obvious: 
Since  the  propagation  of  human  beings 
goes  on  with  entire  recklessness  as  to 
the  quality  of  the  product  and  the 
means  of  subsistence,  some  strong  cor- 
rective is  absolutely  necessary  to  estab- 
lish limits  to  populations  and  to  secure 
the  continued  development  of  the  race. 

If  every  begotten  child  lived  to  the 
average  age  of  40,  in  a  very  few  years 
there  would  not  be  standing  room  on 
the  earth  for  its  people. 

Even  with  such  limited  propagators 
as  the  elephant,  each  female  of  which 
produces  but  six  offspring   in  her  bear- 


Page  14 


ing  period  of  90  years,  we  are  told 
that  if  the  species  had  no  parasitic  or 
other  enemy  it  would  only  be  740 
years  until  elephants  would  overrun  the 
earth. 

Where  then  should  we  assign  limits 
to  the  productiveness  of  the  750,000,000 
human  females  on  the  globe,  each  of 
whom  is  capable  of  producing  20  chil- 
dren in  her  30  years  of  bearing? 

If,  too,  every  child  had  the  same 
chance  of  life  without  reference  to  its 
mental  and  physical  fitness  to  live,  hu- 
manity would  soon  become  a  stagnant 
slough  of  vicious  vitality.  There  are 
only  food  and  room  for  the  best,  and 
as    the    development    of    the    race    de- 

Pagc  15 


mands  it,  only  the  best  survive  and 
continue  the  w^ork  of  propagation.  The 
rest  are  destroyed. 


I 


r^i|  Y  the  **best"  is  understood  those 
IteM  having  that  harmony  of  mental 
and  physical  development  vs^hich  brings 
them  most  nearly  into  accord  with 
Nature's    laws. 


I  YK  I  E-LOW  the  human  stratum  super- 
WfcfliSI  abundant  generation  is  neutral- 
ized   by    the    simple    device    of    having 


Page  16 


every  organism  prey  upon  some  other 
one.  In  her  10  years  of  fruitful  life 
the  female  cod  lays  50,000,000  eggs. 
If  nothing  thwarted  the  amiable  efforts 
of  herself  and  offspring  to  multiply  and 
replenish,  they  would  shortly  pack  the 
ocean  as  full  as  a  box  of  sardines. 

While,  however,  giving  one  female 
the  desire  and  capacity  to  produce 
50,000,000  lives,  nature  has  given 
other  animals  the  desire  and  capacity 
to  annihilate  most  of  those  50,000,000 
lives. 

So  all  through  the  animal  kingdom 
it  is  nearly  a  neck-to-neck  race  be- 
tween   production    and    extermination. 

Life    is    a    universal    and    unceasing 

Page  17 


struggle,    between    the    eaters    and    the 
eaten. 


BAN  alone  is  practically  exempt 
from  what  is  apparently  an  in- 
variable condition  of  all  other  forms  of 
animal  life.  While  he  preys  upon  a 
myriad  of  created  things,  there  is  no 
created  thing  that  preys  on  him  and 
assists  in  keeping  his  excessive  produc- 
tiveness within  the  limits  of  subsistence. 
Most  significant  of  all,  not  even  a  para- 
site wages  destructive  warfare  against 
him.  That  is,  if  we  except  from  the 
classification  the  doctors'  latest  explana- 

Pagc  18 


tion  of  the  cause  of  everything,  from 
pneumonia  to  laziness — the  modest  but 
effective  bacillus.  The  bacillus,  how- 
ever, is  much  more  a  condition  than  a 
parasite. 

This  absence  of  destructive  enemies 
must  be  compensated  for  in  some  vvray, 
and  it  is  accomplished  by  making  vi- 
cious inclinations  the  agents  to  weed 
out  the  redundant  growths  and  to  se- 
lect for  extermination  those  which  are 
inferior,  depraved,  weak,  and  unfit  for 
preservation  or  reproduction. 

If  five  human  beings  are  procreated 
where  there  is  present  room  and  pro- 
vision  but   for   three,   how  are   the   sur- 

Pagc  19 


plus    two    to    be    picked    out    and    ex- 
terminated ? 

Of  course  each  one  of  us  feels  en- 
tirely competent  to  pick  out  in  his 
own  community  the  persons  who  could 
be  best  spared,  but  public  opinion  is 
at  present  hostile  both  to  any  practical 
plan  of  making  the  necessary  thinning 
out,  and  also  to  lodging  the  power  of 
selection  in  the  hands  of  those  of  us 
best  calculated   for   the   duty. 

BPPARENTLY  the  surplus  ones 
relieve    us    from    embarrassment 
on    this    score    by    selecting    to    extermi- 


Page  20 


nate  themselves.  Their  methods  of  sui- 
cide  cover  a  wide  range  of  expedients 
but  all  are  very  effective. 

And  most  beneficent  of  any  of  the 
facts  connected  vv^ith  this  subject  is 
that  each  of  those  chosen  for  extermi- 
nation embraces  his  fate  with  positive 
eagerness,  under  the  delusion  that  he  is 
about  to  enhance  his  own  happiness. 

®  @  9 


HJI  IMMODERATE  use  of  stimu- 
96^     lants    and    the    varied    excesses 
and     vital     errors    which     are     grouped 
under    the    general    head    of    "dissipa- 
tion," a  "love  of  pleasure,"  or  the  still 

Page  21 


more  expressive  phrase  "a  short  life 
and  a  merry  one,"  etc.,  are  favorite 
ways  of  self-annihilation  and  leave  little 
to  be  desired  in  the  completeness  with 
which  they  do  their  work. 

English  statisticians  formerly  estimated 
that  if  a  man  drank  beer  in  large 
quantities  it  took  him  21.7  years  to 
kill  himself,  which  period  the  whisky- 
drinker   shortened   to    16.1    years. 

Closer  study  and  wider  knowledge 
have  materially  changed  these  conclu- 
sions, to  the  great  detriment  of  beer. 
For  once,  and  upon  one  point,  the 
physicians  of  the  world  have  agreed. 
American,  English,  and  German  doc- 
tors say  with  one  voice   that  the  most 

Page  22 


hopeless  patient  who  comes  into  their 
hands  is  the  soaked,  crapulous,  beer- 
drinker.  "Point  out  a  gray-haired  beer- 
drinker,"  they  challenge,  and  challenge 
in  vain.  Gray-haired  whisky-drinkers 
may  be  found,  but  not  the  others. 

Starch  in  every  stage  of  decay,  car- 
ried by  the  all-penetrating  alcohol,  sur- 
charges the  tissues  with  putrefaction, 
and  makes  the  tumid  veins  a  forcing- 
ground  for  bacteria.  Thus  the  beer- 
drinker's  slight  cold  becomes  at  once 
pneumonia,  or  inflammatory  rheumatism, 
or  Bright's  disease,  and  his  life  flickers 
out  like  a  candle  in  a  gusty  passage. 

Intemperance  being  among  the  milder 
vices    kills    slowly.       Sexual    sins    slay 


Page  23 


more  rapidly,  and  the  criminal  grades  of 
vice  do  their  work  with  a  swiftness  in 
proportion  to  their  flagrancy.  The 
Psalmist  says,  "bloody  and  deceitful  men 
shall  not  live  out  half  their  days,'*  but 
police  records  will  show  that  David 
materially  overrates  the  average.  "One 
quarter  their  days"  would  approach 
much  nearer  exactness. 

SETURNING  to  the  major  prem- 
ise that  the  "survival  of  the 
fittest"  means  the  selection  and  preser- 
vation of  those  individuals  who  are 
most  nearly  in  harmony  with   the  con- 


Page  24 


ditions  of  their  environment,  and  that 
the  progress  of  the  race  or  species  in- 
volves the  destruction  of  the  weaker  or 
the  inferior  who  are  not  in  such  har- 
mony, the  conclusion  follows  that  any 
aberration  toward  vice  shows  such  dis- 
cordance in  the  individual  with  the 
laws  of  his  environment  as  marks  him 
as  inferior,  weak,  and  obstructive  of 
the  race's  development. 

Vice  is  not  so  much  a  cause  as  an 
effect — precisely  as  disease  is  a  sjrmp)- 
tom.  Vice  does  not  make  a  nature 
weak  or  defective:  a  weak  and  defec- 
tive nature  expresses  its  weaknesses 
and  defects  in  vice,  and  that  expres- 
sion brings  about  in   one  way  and   an- 

Pagc  25 


other  the  sovereign  remedy  of  extermi- 
nation. 

®  ^  ® 


r^^l  UCH  is  said  of  the  devastation 

^^^    of  our  fairest  and  brightest  by 

the    Drink    Demon.      This    is    mainly 
nonsense.      It  was   more   nearly   true  in 

former    generations,    when    intemperance 

was     an     almost     universal     vice.       As 

Hamlet   says: 

**it  is  a  custom 
More  honor'd  in  the  breach  than  the  observance. 
This  heavy-headed  revel  east  and  west 
Makes  us  traduced  and  tax*d  of  other  nations: 
They    clepe    us   drunkards,    and   with    swinish 

phrase 
Soil  our  addition.** 


Page  26 


Morals  has  made  wonderful  prog- 
ress since  then,  in  all  directions,  and 
heavy  drinking  has  been  more  and 
more  restricted  to  those  who  are 

"Marked  cross  from  the  womb  and  perverse.** 

With  few  exceptions  every  one  who 
goes  to  perdition  by  the  alcohol  route 
would  reach  that  destination  by  some 
other  highway  if  the  alcohol  line  were 
not   running. 

Every  man  whose  sloth  or  improvi- 
dence has  brought  himself  and  his  fam- 
ily to  beggary,  every  thieving  tramp 
upon  the  highways,  every  rascal  in  the 
penitentiary,  every  murderer  upon  the 
gallows,  hastens  to  plead  "whisky  brought 

Page  27 


me  to  this!**  because  he  knows  that 
such  a  plea  will  bring  him  a  gush  of 
sloppy  sympathy  unobtainable  by  other 
means. 

Whisky  makes  no  man  lazy,  shiftless, 
dishonest,  false,  cowardly  or  brutal. 
These  must  be  original  qualities  with 
him.  If  he  has  them  he  will  proba- 
bly take  to  whisky — though  not  inevit- 
ably— ^which  then  does  the  community 
the  splendid  service  of  hurrying  him 
along  to  destruction,  and  of  abridging 
his  infliction  upon  the  public. 


Page  28 


BEOPLE  who  have  done  much 
in  the  way  of  reforming  drunk- 
ards have  been  astonished  to  find  how 
little  real  manhood  remained  after  elim- 
inating whisky  from  the  equation.  They 
had  supposed  the  manhood  to  be  only 
obscured,  and  were  disheartened  to 
find  how  frequently  it  happened  to  be 
demonstrated  that  there  never  was  enough 
of  it  to  pay  for  the  trouble  of  "saving 
the  victim  of  intemperance." 

Like  the  cherubim  before  the  throne 
of  God,  the  Temperance  orators  "con- 
tinually do  cry,"  the  burden  of  their 
song  being  that  hundreds  of  thousands 
are  annually  slain  by  the  monster  In- 
temperance. 


Page  29 


Quite  singularly  these  figures  are 
probably  not  exaggerated.  Myriads  of 
times  kindly-hearted  physicians  write  in 
the  death  certificate  "pneumonia,"  "heart- 
failure/*  "diabetes,**  etc.,  when  truth 
demands  "beer**  or  "whisky." 


rgjUT  what  of  this? 
ItefiBi  Is  it  not  merely  Nature  sweep- 
ing out  her  overcrowded  workshop? 
Ridding  her  laboratory  of  misfits,  de- 
fectives, and  rejects?  Into  her  junk 
pile  alcohol  whisks  away  daily  thou- 
sands of  thieves,  gamblers,  prostitutes, 
loafers,     "sports,"     spongers,     swindlers. 


Page  30 


and  others  of  the  criminal  and  quasi- 
criminal  classes.  Over  their  moldering 
clay  the  daisies  bloom  in  sweet  ob- 
livion  of 

**The  sins  and  crimes 
Done  in  their  days  of  nature." 

Upon  these  alcoholism  accommodat- 
ingly performs  the  office  of  judge  and 
executioner,  cutting  their  careers  off  at 
an  average  of  five  years,  which,  with- 
out this  interposition,  would  possibly 
be  extended  to  20  or  30.  The  cer- 
tainty and  celerity  with  which  it  fer- 
rets out  and  destroys  these  classes  gives 
it  strong  advantages  over  the  ordinary 
processes  of  destruction. 

It    was    exceedingly    unfortunate    for 

Page  31 


the  community  that  the  leaders  of  the 
James  and  Younger  gangs  were  tem- 
perate men.  Had  it  not  been  so,  their 
careers,  instead  of  extending  over  20 
harassing  years,  would  have  been  cut 
short  inside  of  five.  Uncontrollable  pre- 
dilection for  whisky,  and  the  society  of 
strange  women  brought  about  the  de- 
struction of  nearly  all  of  the  band  who 
from  time  to  time  were  slain  by  each 
other's  hands  or  those  of  justice.  Tem- 
perance and  chastity  in  a  rascal  of  any 
kind  mean  an  immense  amount  of  mis- 
chief to  the  community.  Fortunately 
they  are  quite  rare. 


Page  32 


HE  rapid  spread  of  Prohibition 
is  full  of  suggestion.  The  grain 
fields  of  Kansas  and  Texas  are  periodically 
devastated  by  the  green  bug.  When  the 
green  bugs  are  at  their  worst  a  para- 
site appears  which  sweeps  them  off, 
and  the  wheat  growers  have  a  respite. 
Then,  having  destroyed  their  proven- 
der, the  parasites  starve,  and  the  green 
bugs  have  a  chance  to  grow  again 
until  the  parasites  overtake  them  in  the 
hour  of  their  triumph  and  power. 

Will  the  suppression  of  the  alcoholic 
scavenger  allow  the  criminals  and  quasi- 
criminals     to     multiply     like     the     green 

bugs? 

•  «  « 


Page  33 


HURING  the  ages  of  terrible  op- 
pression of  the  European  peo- 
ples which  cubninated  in  the  French 
Revolution,  the  main  amelioration  of 
the  hardships  endured  was  found  in 
the  vices  of  the  oppressors.  The  sword 
of  the  duelist,  quarreling  over  women, 
the  picturesque  horrors  of  delirium  tre- 
mens, and  the  loathsome  mal  de  Na- 
ples continually  swept  away  hecatombs 
of  t3Tant  lordlings  and  frequently  ob- 
literated whole  families.  In  fact  no 
aristocratic  family  ever  withstood  these 
adverse  influences  very  long.  Extinc- 
tion came  as  promptly  and  as  certainly 
as  the  curculio  to  the  ripening  plum. 
The  student  of  French  and   English 


Page  34 


history  is  continually  astonished  at  the 
brief  time  in  which  noble  names  re- 
main in  view.  They  rise  to  dizzy  emi- 
nence on  one  page,  and  on  the  next 
go  down  to  oblivion.  One  rarely  finds 
the  name  of  a  century  or  two  ago 
mentioned  in  any  of  the  European 
news  of  to-day.  Mr.  Freeman,  the 
eminent  English  historian,  says,  conclu- 
sively, that  in  spite  of  the  perennial 
vaunt  of  ancestors  who  "came  over 
with  the  Conqueror,"  and  of  Tenny- 
son's musical  mendacity  about  the 
"daughter  of  an  hundred  Earls,"  the 
families  who  can  trace  back  to  even 
so  recent  a  date  as  the  reign  of  the 
Stuarts  are  very  rare. 


Page  35 


Frequently  hundreds  of  years  elapsed 
before  the  historic  titles  were  "revived" 
to  gild  some  parvenu.  Since  then  these 
families  have  been  kept  up  only  by  inter- 
marriages with  later  parvenus. 

The  royal  family  itself  has  been  re- 
peatedly on  the  point  of  extinction, 
and  the  continuity  of  the  line  only 
maintained   by   extraordinary   efforts. 


J I  DLENELSS,  luxury,  and  more  or 

less    flagrant    debauchery    have 

done  their  appointed  work  in  removing 

the    deteriorated    forms    of    human    life 

Page  36 


from   the   world,   that  their  room  might 
be  had  for  more  acceptable  growths. 


^  I OCIETY  has  been  most  aptly 
^1^  likened  to  a  vat  of  good  wine, 
which  is  scum  and  froth  at  the  top, 
dregs  and  sediment  at  the  bottom,  and 
good,  pure,  clear  liquor  in  the  middle. 
Vice  does  admirable  work  in  skimming 
away  the  supernatant  scum  and  in 
drawing  off   the  dregs   and  settlings. 

Unceasing  fermentation  seems  to  be 
a  condition  necessary  to  the  health  of 
society.  The  humblest  work  incessant- 
ly  to   lift   themselves   into   the  ranks   of 


Page  37 


the  middle-classes,  the  middle-classes 
strive  as  earnestly  to  make  themselves 
plutocrats,  aristocrats,  and  lordlings. 
This  ambition  for  worldly  advancement 
is  one  of  society's  most  powerful  ad- 
juncts for  good.  When  a  man  at  last 
reaches  the  social  summit  he  desists 
from  further  efforts  at  improvement. 
He  becomes  like  a  man  who  after 
struggling  forward  to  reach  the  head 
of  the  procession  refuses  to  march  an- 
other step.  Some  vice,  mayhap  mere- 
ly over-eating,  is  likely  to  remove  him 
and  secure  the  ground  for  another  man 
to  come  to  the  front,  who  is  also  re- 
moved summarily  when  he  becomes 
obstructive.      If    the    fortune-builder    is 

Page  38 


not  thus  removed,  his  children  are  sub- 
ject to  attack. 

Were  it  not  for  this,  the  upper 
stratum  of  society  would  speedily  be- 
come so  crowded  that  ascent  to  it 
would  be  impossible,  all  healthful,  am- 
bitious motive  be  taken  away  from  the 
middle  and  lower  classes,  stagnation 
follow,  and  society  perish  from  conges- 
tion. 

HISTORY  is  full  of  illustrations 
of  the  benefits  of  vice  in  as- 
sisting to  shape  the  destinies  of  Nations 
and   peoples.     Take,   for   example,   the 


Page  39 


Bourbons  whose  stupidity  and  tyranny 
have  passed  into  a  proverb.  In  the 
last  century  their  worse  than  worthless 
personalities  filled  nearly  every  throne  in 
southern  Europe.  They  seemed  to 
breed  like  wolves  in  a  famine-stricken 
land,  and  their  fangs  were  at  every 
people's  throat.  Fortunately  they  had 
vices.  Wine  and  lechery  did  what 
human  enemies  could  not  and  the  pack 
of  wolves  rotted  away  like  a  flock  of 
diseased  sheep.  The  mortality  was  so 
regular  that  for  a  long  time  French 
kings  were  succeeded  by  their  grand- 
sons and  great-grandsons,  their  sons  all 
burning  themselves  out  before  the  time 
came  for  ascending  the  throne. 


Page  40 


The  unutterably  vile  life  of  Louis 
XV.  was  terminated  by  the  smallpox 
communicated  to  him  in  the  course  of 
a  most  disgraceful  amour.  His  grand- 
son, who  succeeded  him,  had  no  de- 
structive vices,  and  so  the  people  were 
compelled  at  last  to  resort  to  the  guil- 
lotine   to   rid   themselves   of   him. 

The  vast  problem  for  the  French  in 
1790  would  have  been  greatly  simpli- 
fied if  Louis  XVI.  had  been  a  short- 
lived debauchee  like  his  father  and  two 
brothers.  The  healthy  German  blood 
of  his  Saxon  mother  corrected  some- 
what the  virus  in  the  Bourbon  veins, 
and  he  lived  to  become  an  intolerable 
cumberer    and    obstructive. 


Page  41 


The  only  Bourbon  still  remaining  on 
a  throne  is  the  King  of  Spain,  and  his 
teeth  are  on  edge  from  the  sour  grapes 
of  unchastity  which  his  fathers  and 
mothers  ate. 

Like  his  grandmother,  the  notorious 
Isabella  II,  his  father,  aunts,  and  cous- 
ins, and  indeed  every  one  of  the  Bour- 
bons, he  is  a  sad  physical  weakling. 

The  physicians  politely  term  "scrof- 
ulous diathesis"  the  syphilitic  taint  of 
the  Bourbon  blood.  In  his  grand- 
mother it  showed  itself  in  a  repulsive 
cutaneous  disease  which  she  tried  to 
ameliorate  or  cure  in  a  truly  Bourbon- 
ish   way,    by   having   her   underclothing 


Page  42 


previously  worn  by  a  nun  of  high  re- 
pute for  piety. 

Alfonso's  XIII.'s  father  burned  himself 
out  at  the  age  of  28.  His  aunts  find 
kinsmen  all  had  some  one  or  more  of 
scrofula's  varied  physical  degradations 
and  deformities,  and  went  out  from 
time  to  time  like  ill-made  candles. 

Though  the  hopes  of  his  race  and 
the  peace  of  his  country  depend  upon 
Alfonso's  life,  all  the  care  given  him 
in  his  boyhood  could  do  no  more  than 
slightly   mitigate   the   ancestral   blight. 

9f  ^  9f 


Page  43 


SFEW  years  ago  the  people  of 
Holland  were  threatened  with  a 
most  serious  calamity.  Depraved  hered- 
ity, unwise  sexual  selection,  or  some  other 
primal  cause  had  resulted  in  the  pro- 
duction, as  the  Prince  of  Orange — the 
Crown  Prince — of  an  individual  of  a 
weak,  inferior,  and  depraved  nature. 
His  was  such  a  nature  as  on  a  throne 
becomes  a  fountain  of  numberless  op- 
pressions and  evils,  and  rarely  fails  to 
goad  the  unhappy  subjects  into  rebel- 
lion, attended  v^th  the  usual  frightful 
loss  of  life  and  property  and  vast  sor- 
rows. Fortunately  he  had  destructive 
vices.  The  appetite  for  these  led  him 
to    Paris.      A    few   years    of    riot    and 

Page  44 


debauchery  sapped  away  the  dangerous 
life  of  "Lemons,"  as  his  worthless 
boon-companions  named  him,  and  he 
died  as  the  fool  dieth.  The  only 
harm  he  was  able  to  do  was  the  indi- 
rect damage  of  a  bad  example,  and 
the  good  people  of  the  Netherlands 
were  rid  of  a  possible  Louis  XV.  at 
no  greater  cost  than  that  of  some  years 
of  extravagant  life  in  the  French  capi- 
tal. His  father's  evil  excesses  and  pen- 
chant for  pretty  ballet-girls  left  as  his 
only  successor  a  young  not  over-strong 
girl,  who  thus  far  has  failed  to  pro- 
duce an  heir  to  the  throne,  to  the  deep 
disappointment  of  such  of  her  people 
as   love    royalty.      Holland   will,    there- 


Page  45 


fore,  in  all  probability,  glide  into  a 
republic  without  the  usual  sanguinary 
convulsions  attending  such  transitions. 

T  is  the  story  of  the  Ages — old 
when  the  Pyramids  were  yet 
young ;  new  to  every  generation.  Hanni- 
bal's victorious  army  found  the  "  soft  de- 
lights of  Capua"  far  more  deadly  than  Ro- 
man swords.  That  famous  "Winter  in 
Capua"  wrecked  the  invaders,  saved 
Rome,    and   ruined   Carthage. 

•  •• 


Page  46 


®|  ¥  N  conspicuous  contrast  to  the  royal 
^^^  and  aristocratic  families  just  al- 
luded to  are  the  houses  of  Hohenzollern 
and  Savoy. 

A  thrifty  burgher  of  Nuremberg, 
eager  to  get  into  the  landed  aristoc- 
racy on  any  terms,  foreclosed  a  mort- 
gage on  a  stretch  of  most  unpromising 
sand  and  swamp  around  Brandenberg. 
It  was  of  so  little  worth  as  to  be  fre- 
quently spoken  of  as  "the  sandbox  of 
the  Holy  Roman  Empire."  The  Hoh- 
enzollerns  attacked  this  uninviting  prob- 
lem with  real  German  thrift  and  tena- 
city. They  resolved  to  make  their 
swamps  and  sand  barrens  productive 
like    the    rich    lands    of   their    neighbors. 


Page  47 


Flinching  from  no  drudgery  themselves, 
they  would  allow  none  of  their  people 
to  do  so.  Every  Hohenzollem  son  and 
daughter  was  brought  up  to  unsparing 
hard  work,  severe  economy,  plain  food 
and  coarse  clothing,  with  a  rigid  code 
of  morals. 

At  the  time  when  the  example  of 
Louis  XIV.  was  debauching  every  Ger- 
man princeling  into  having  a  shov^ 
court  with  a  pretentious  palace  and  a 
tinseled  retinue,  all  wrung  from  the 
poor  peasantry,  the  King  of  Prussia 
was  running  his  court  after  the  man- 
ner of  a  close-fisted,  land-gaining  Ger- 
man farmer. 

Cabbages    that    could    not    be    sold 


Page  48 


were  served  on  the  royal  tables  in  order 
to  save  a  few  thalers  for  the  support 
of  the  army,  and  add  to  the  war  chest. 

The  shabby  appointments  of  the  pal- 
ace were  the  derision  of  Europe.  The 
common  people  of  Prussia  had,  how- 
ever, a  much  larger  share  of  what  their 
labor  produced  than  those  of  any  other 
part  of  Europe.  The  King  not  only 
set  a  good  example  in  making  the  most 
out  of  everything,  but  he  personally 
caned  lessons  of  industry  and  frugality 
into  his  people,  high  and  low. 

There  were  occasionally  black  sheep 
in  even  such  a  sternly  regulated  family, 
but  as  a  general  rule  the  sons  and 
daughters   married   strong,    clean    mates, 

/  Page  49 


and  strictly  maintained  the  family  tra- 
ditions. A  provision  against  the  way- 
ward princelings  was  made  by  which 
their  possessions  passed  into  the  main 
house  if  they  fell  below  the  standard. 

So  the  Hohenzollems  grew,  and 
Prussia  grew  from  a  despised  sand- 
barren  to  be  one  of  the  Six  Great 
Powers  of  Europe,  and  is  now  the 
head   of  the  mighty   German   Empire. 

We  do  not  have  as  full  history  of 
the  House  of  Savoy,  but  we  have 
enough  to  know  that  in  much  the  same 
way,  at  the  same  time,  and  by  much 
the  same  moral  discipline,  it  arose  from 
the  lordship  of  a  little  stretch  of  moun- 

Page  50 


tain    land    in    the    Alps    to    rule    over 

United    Italy. 

«99 

1  nP  1  ^^  ^^^^  attractive  feature  of  this 

k|^|    self-pruning  of  the  objectionable 

growths  in  society,  as  said  before,  is  that 

the  victims  destroy  themselves  under  the 

hallucination  that  they  are  drinking  the 

richest  wine  of  earthly  pleasure.    When 

execution    can    be    made    a    matter    of 

keen  relish  to  the  condemned,   certainly 

nothing  is  wanting  on  the  score  of  hu- 

manity. 

«•« 

Page  51 


Ejj  ANTICIPATE  the  objection 
^  that  slaying  bad  men  by  means 
of  their  own  vicious  propensities  brings 
much  misery  to  those  coimected  with 
them. 

But  then  all  innocent  persons  con- 
nected with  bad  men  are  fated  to  suf- 
fer in  exact  proportion  to  the  close- 
ness of  the  connection,  whether  the  bad 
men  are  destroyed  or  not.  Weak, 
selfish,  perverted,  and  criminal  men  al- 
ways inflict  misery  upon  their  relatives 
and  associates.  This  is  not  usually  in- 
tensified by  their  being  drunkards  or 
debauchees. 

It  is  also  true  that  no  one  of  Na- 
ture's methods  of  extinction  is  pleasant 


Page  52 


to  those  connected  with  the  victim. 
The  thief  or  thug,  prematurely  dying 
with  delirium  tremens,  is  certainly  quite 
as  bearable  a  sight  to  those  before 
whose  eyes  it  may  come  as  the  specta- 
cle of  a  virtuous  man,  the  sole  support 
of  his  family,  slowly  wasting  away 
with  consumption  in  spite  of  all  that 
loving  service  and  agonizing  sjmipathy 
can  do  to  retain  for  him  a  life  that 
is  of  so  much  value. 

•  •• 

aO  the  next  objection  that  the  prac- 
tice of  vice  is  not  invariably  sui- 
cidal, since  many  rascals  live  to  attain  as 


Page  53 


green  an  old  age  as  the  most  righteous, 
it  is  sufEcient  to  say  that  plentiful  as 
these  exceptions  may  occasionally  seem, 
their  proportion  to  the  whole  number 
is  at  least  as  small  as  that  of  the  ex- 
ceptions to  any  other  general  law  of 
biology. 

The  policeman  on  the  next  comer 
will  bear  decided  testimony  that  the 
number  of  scoundrels  who  survive  their 
30th  year  is  astonishingly  small,  and 
he  can  point  out  any  number  of  erst- 
while troublesome  members  of  the 
community  who  are  ending  their  lives 
in  penitentiary,  poorhouse,  or  hospital 
at  an  age  when  well-behaved  men  are 


Page  54 


just   entering   upon   the   serious   business 
of  life. 

It  is  also  demonstrable  that  the  pro- 
portion of  vicious  men  to  the  whole 
population  is  much  less  to-day  than  at 
any  previous  period  in  the  history  of 
the  race.  This  shows  conclusively  the 
improvement  of  society  by  the  self- 
destructiveness  of  vice.  The  propor- 
tion of  bad  men  is  rapidly  diminishing, 
because  bad  men  die  sooner  and  prop- 
agate fewer  than  good  ones. 


•  •• 


Page  55 


1^^  I CIENCE  is  incredulous  of  any 
I^^Hl  relation  between  religion  and 
natural  laws.  Yet  it  is  true  now  as 
said   thirty   centuries   ago   that — 

"The  fear  of  the  Lord  is  the  be- 
ginning of  wisdom.  A  good  under- 
standing have  they  who  keep  his  com- 
mandments.** 

From  the  Ten  Commandments  on, 
all  religions  have  been  the  best  efforts 
of  their  founders  and  supporters  to  put 
man  in  accord  with  his  environment. 
This  is  their  essence,  though  too  fre- 
quently obscured  by  the  political,  theo- 
logical, and  social  aspects  given  them. 

While  some  religions  are  much  bet- 
ter    than     others,     every    man  gets     as 

Page  56 


good 

a   religion   and   as  much   of  it  as 

he  has 

capacity  for.     Nothing  has  been 

more  < 

clearly  demonstrated  by  thousands 

of   years   of   strenuous   missionary   effort 

than   this   fact. 

Furthermore,    any    religion    is    better 

than  none. 

"For  m 

odes  of  faith  let  graceless  zealots  Hgkt,        1 

His  can*t  be  wrong,  whose  life  is  in  the  right.** 

«  »  « 

<& 

ELIGION.  in  its  primary  sense 
of   something   to  bind  back,   to 

bind   1 

ast.   is  a  force  which  restrains  a 

P^ge  57 


man  from  acts  temporarily  attractive 
but  eventually  hurtful  to  himself  and 
others. 

Some  religions,  like  the  Hebrew, 
promise  in  addition  to  spiritual  bene- 
fits, long  life,  worldly  success,  peace, 
happiness,  and  blessings  to  the  children, 
even  to  the  third  and  fourth  genera- 
tions. 

The  Brahmin  and  Buddhist  promise 
a  Nirvana — a  dreamless  rest  from  the 
troubles   of   life. 

The  Christian  and  Mahometan  prom- 
ise an  eternity  of  ineffable  bliss. 

All  of  these  are  based  upon  the  ele- 
ments   of    moral  science  and,    at    least. 


Page  58 


give  a  man  a  fairly  reliable  sailing 
chart  for  the  voyage  of  life. 

Defective  as  many  of  them  may  be, 
they  are  the  best  that  human  intelli- 
gence  has   so   far  produced. 

Next  in  order  but  far  inferior  in 
saving  powder  are  statute  laws  and  so- 
cial   ethics. 

AH  these  influences  are  potent  in 
that  broad,  middle  ground  which  sep- 
arates the  best  from  the  worst.  They 
"pluck  brands  from  the  burning." 

By  their  means  the  less  aberrant  are 
brought  into  nearer  conformity  with 
Nature's    stern   requirements. 

But  for  the  hopeless  defectives. — 
the  misfits  in  her  tireless   productiveness 

Page  59 


— religion,    laws,    and   society   are   alike 
weaker  than  woman's  tears. 

They  themselves  sharpen  the  scythe 
of  the  Grim  Reaper  who  brings  the 
only  remedy. 


Page  60 


'^K^  \ 


^'\ 


YC  30704 


I 


